–YOU KNOW YOU KNEAD IT–

M and I have been living a life of shed-building. For all the socialising we have done since the time we have moved into the trailer, we almost may as well have been in Hervey Bay. Some people get it, and some don’t.
“What have you guys been up to? We haven’t seen you for ages.”
“Shed. We’re building a shed.”
I can see their eyes glaze over, and I can tell that they really don’t understand the scale of what I’m talking about. I think they assume we’re building something the size of a double garage. But the truth is, we’re building something that’s more like a small aircraft hangar and we have spent a bomb on a catamaran kit that is sitting under tarpaulins as we (mostly M) hurry to build the shed around it.

So here’s a re-cap

When we bought it, the shed was 15 metreslong, seven metres wide, and three metres high. It was in Point Cook and it looked like this:

We attacked it over about four or five days until it looked like this:

And then we hired a truck, loaded it up, put the trimaran trailer behind it and loaded it up too, and drove it across Melbourne to Cannons Creek.

M spent several weeks cutting posts and trusses in half, then welding inserts to make the whole structure wider and higher. Two metres wider and one metre higher. A lot of welding. Another factor was that the shed site wasn’t great, and needed a truckload or two or fill to build it up to a decent level. This all took A. Very. Long. Time. and a Lot. Of. Work.

The holes needed filling with concrete, and bolts were positioned in the concrete (pointing up) and we (after a bit of mucking around) slotted the side supports over the bolts and spent a lot of time getting the absolutely level. Which made the job much easier when it came to getting the crane to put on the roof trusses:

While I was working in town for four days last week M somehow managed to get the roof on. I have no idea how he did it on his own…

Over the weekend that’s just been, we’ve put on the majority of both side walls. The shed is now 15 metres long, nine metres wide and four metres high – which gives us a metre and a half each side of the boat and two metres in front and behind in which to work.